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Thursday, May 23, 2013

MONSANTO MARCH MADNESS

CARPE DIEM ON SATURDAY

Temecula, CA – Arguing against Monsanto is like pig
wrestling. Everyone gets dirty but
the pig loves it. OnSaturday 11AM PST, a grip of countries on the
planet will protest March Against Monsanto. Not since Occupy or Invisible Children
has the world been in such frenzy over a single issue. That issue is Monsanto and their world economy
partner, Wal-Mart, the biggest
single mover of Genetically Manipulated Organisms, or GMOs to the American people. As was pointed out in the story, ‘Valentine
of the Day’, moms and other women are leading this march on Saturday and a bill
is being introduced to repeal the Monsanto
Protection Act. This is a big story folks so sit back if you just joined
this shootout and I’ll bring you up to speed for Saturday.

Though many people and organizations have been labeled ‘the
Anti-Christ’ and ‘the Beast’, Obama can’t directly poison my cornflakes,
Monsanto can and does. While many government/academia experts salute Monsanto
and what they stand for as a very successful international business, a look
outside those rose-colored glasses reveals exactly the opposite. This is where
the tagline, ‘living inside the Death Star’ comes from.

Already the NY Daily News and others list the MPA as being ‘inserted
anonymously’ into the farm bill signed by Obama when public record and the Calendar
story [this website] states Sen.
Blunt as the man who wrote and inserted the MPA.

Sen. Jeff
Merkley (D-Ore., pictured left) is seeking to introduce an amendment to the upcoming farm bill
that would overturn protections given to Monsanto and other producers of
genetically modified seeds. Go here to sign the petition for the amendment and
go here to sign the Wal-Mart ‘label your GMOs or I won’t shop you’ petition.

Meanwhile U.S.
taxpayers are footing the bill for overseas lobbying that promotes
controversial biotech crops developed by U.S.-based Monsanto Co and other seed
makers. A review of 926 diplomatic
cables of correspondence to and from the U.S.
State Department and embassies in more than 100 countries found that State Department officials actively
promoted the commercialization of specific biotech seeds, according to the
report issued by Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer protection group.

The State Department officials tried to quash public criticism of particular companies and facilitated negotiations between
foreign governments and seed companies such as Monsanto over issues like patents and intellectual property, the
report said.

The cables show U.S. diplomats supporting Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, in foreign
countries even after it paid $1.5 million in fines after being charged with
bribing an Indonesian official and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
in 2005.

"It really goes
beyond promoting the U.S.'s biotech industry and agriculture," said
Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. "It really
gets down to twisting the arms of countries and working to undermine local
democratic movements that may be opposed to biotech crops, and pressuring
foreign governments to also reduce the oversight of biotech crops."

One 2009 cable shows the embassy in Spain seeking
"high-level U.S. government intervention" at the "urgent
request" of Monsanto to combat
biotech crop opponents there, according to the Food & Water Watch report.

But U.S. State Department officials, Monsanto and many other
companies/ industry experts routinely say that biotech crops are
needed around the world to increase global food production as population
expands. They maintain that the
crops are safe and make farming easier and more
environmentally sustainable.

And just when the news couldn’t get worse, it did. Americans
may soon be biting into the future of apples. Pending approval, read rubber stamp,
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration,
genetically manipulated apples could get the green light to appear supermarket
shelves.

Dubbed “botox apples”
because they are designed to prevent bruising and browning, Arctic Granny Smith and Arctic Golden Delicious apples made by
Canada’s Okanagan Specialty Fruits
have been under review by U.S. regulatory agencies since 2010 and could become
the second genetically manipulated
fruit to be allowed in the country.

“Not only do they have significant potential to reduce food
waste, the resistance to browning results in better taste, texture and likely a
retention of healthful components like vitamin C and antioxidants, which are
typically burned up in the browning reaction,” said Joel Brooks, marketing
specialist at Okanagan,

Apple growers in Washington State oppose Okanagan’s bid to bring its scientifically enhanced fruit to
market. The Northwest Horticultural Council fears that genetic drift from GMO
crops will contaminate fields of organic apples, and result in loss of European
sales, where the crops have been banned; see Food Science Vs Food Safety and other articles during the Prop 37 run-up.

Like Monsanto, the world’s leading producer of GMO seed
stock, Okanagan has come out against the kind of mandatory labeling standards
that are in place in the European Union and much of the developed world, but
the company says it will voluntarily identify its apples with a sticker that reads "Arctic."

“We as a company don’t support mandatory labeling
because we feel it basically undermines the regulatory

process,” Neal
Carter, president and

founder of Okanagan, told Chemical & Engineering
News. “We’ve gone through a three-year, very rigorous process and the result of
that is that it’s deemed to be as safe as any other apple. Finally they expect
you to put a label on it like a scare tactic against GMOs.”

Carter is optimistic that his company will get the green light from U.S. regulators and
that the genetically enhanced apples will soon join the Hawaiianpapaya as the
only two genetically modified fruits to be available in produce aisles. GMO sweet corn is now being sold at all
Wal-Marts, including our local ones in Temecula and Murrieta.

“We expect a second U.S. public comment
period, which will be 30 days long,
to open within the next few
months and anticipate full U.S. deregulation later in 2013,” Carter
stated.